Watching the crowd scatter in panic, Shen Hao smiled in satisfaction.
"Fear Points +10
Fear Points +10
..."
A string of system notifications rang out, and Shen Hao smiled even more happily.
Xiaobai was excitedly chasing the students around, playing a thrilling game with them. Screams and cries rang out without pause.
He was still gaining Fear Points.
Fortunately, these classmates were trapped here just like him. That was the one good thing about the situation.
"You have reached level 10!"
At last, Shen Hao heard the words he had most wanted to hear. Level 10—he had finally reached level 10!
For ordinary players, reaching level 10 meant they could awaken as Ability Users.
He was a Demon, but after reaching level 10, he should also see a significant improvement.
At that moment, he felt a tremendous force surge from within him. His body grew sturdier, and he felt as though he had an inexhaustible supply of strength.
Feeling the changes in his body, he guessed that his Constitution had increased substantially in an instant, but apart from that, there didn't seem to be any other improvement.
Shen Hao hurriedly opened his game system panel to check his current status.
He was now level 10, with 0/5000 experience points.
But apart from that, there was also a new field displaying his Fear Points.
Fear Points: 21
The extra 21 Fear Points had not automatically converted into experience points. It seemed Fear Points had other uses.
He also checked his basic attributes:
Constitution: 60 (base 30 × 2) Spirit: 130
His Constitution had indeed increased, which was why he had felt the change in his body.
His actual Constitution was now calculated as twice his base Constitution.
Shen Hao knew this should mean he had gained a new talent or special ability.
Sure enough, a new talent had appeared: Demon Bloodline.
[Demon Bloodline] 1. Your Constitution is always calculated as twice its base value. 2. Fear Points are no longer automatically converted into experience points. They can be converted into demon power. Demon power can be infused into any item to improve its quality, or used to raise ability levels. Demon power is the source of power used for demon abilities. 3. Demon bloodline allows your body to withstand the power of demon organs.
He had gained a new talent: Demon Bloodline.
He summed it up in a few words:
The future looks promising!
For now, it didn't seem all that useful. It had only given him an extra 30 Constitution.
With 60 Constitution, he was already quite strong. If a Monster System Ability User didn't transform, he could hold his own against one.
But once they transformed, the gap would be enormous.
He checked his special abilities again. They were still Throwing Axe Mastery, Undead, and Possession.
He hadn't gained any new abilities.
It fell far short of his expectations.
The people he had to face were powerful. This little bit of strength probably wasn't enough to keep him alive.
He looked around. By now, the scenery around him had begun to change.
Everything had turned blood-red. The sky was red, the ground was red, and the buildings and plants in the school had all turned blood-red as well.
The smell of blood filled the air.
The blood-red color and the smell of blood were refreshing, but only to him.
The people trapped inside the school screamed and cried out from time to time. Clearly, they didn't like the change.
The real hunt had begun. A sense of danger hung in the air.
Shen Hao grew alert and looked around carefully.
The blood banquet ritual had always been mysterious. Even the people of the Alliance Guild didn't know exactly how it was conducted.
All they knew was that every time a blood banquet ritual ended, dozens of corpses were left behind. The bodies were all mutilated, and their blood had been almost completely drained.
Shen Hao would soon learn the answer. He would witness the blood banquet ritual with his own eyes.
Because he was the main course of this blood banquet.
Not far away, a man stood on the blood-red ground. The figure slowly walked toward Shen Hao.
He walked slowly, and his strides weren't long, but strangely, he covered the distance of dozens of meters in just three or four steps.
Now he stood before Shen Hao, only two or three meters away.
Shen Hao carefully sized up the man before him. He was an old man in his sixties, tall and lean-faced, with a robust appearance.
The Thriller Paradise game had appeared thirty years ago. Anyone entering the Horror Game for the first time had to be between eighteen and forty.
Shen Hao could draw one conclusion: the old man in his sixties before him had survived in the Horror Game for at least twenty years.
Shen Hao, on the other hand, had been involved with the Horror Game for less than twenty days.
The gap between twenty years and twenty days was enormous.
So much so that he felt a sense of pressure facing the old man.
"Are you Shen Hao?" the old man asked first.
Shen Hao looked at the old man before him and said, "If I said no, would you believe me?"
"No!" The old man looked at him, killing intent showing in his eyes.
"Then why did you ask?"
"Do you know why I want to kill you?"
"I do. I killed your son and ended your bloodline."
The old man couldn't help clenching his fists, the killing intent radiating from him growing stronger.
If anyone else had joked about his dead only son, he would have torn that person to pieces.
The young man before him had not only touched on his taboo but was also his son's murderer, yet he still didn't make a move.
"I won't kill you myself," the old man said. "Because I have already sacrificed you to the great Bloodied Sovereign.
"Your life belongs neither to me nor to yourself, but to the great Bloodied Sovereign.
"Only He may feast on your flesh and blood. This is the greatest honor of your life!"
The Bloodied Sovereign was the evil god worshipped by the Blood Banquet Guild.
"Then I should thank you," Shen Hao said.
"You're welcome."
With that, the old man called devoutly to the sky,
"Great and exalted Bloodied Sovereign, Your devout follower is about to offer You a delicious meal. He stands before Your castle.
"Please open the blood-colored castle and begin the most noble blood banquet ritual!"
When the old man finished speaking, his figure vanished, as though he had never appeared.
Shen Hao knew that the old man was Jiang Zhennan, an elder of the Blood Banquet Guild, who had come to avenge his son.
But Jiang Zhennan had no intention of making a move. Even to avenge his murdered son, he had chosen not to act personally.
Because Shen Hao had already been offered to the Bloodied Sovereign, he now belonged to the Bloodied Sovereign.
That meant the enemy Shen Hao truly had to face was not Jiang Zhennan, but the Bloodied Sovereign.
The difficulty had increased again.
Jiang Zhennan was human, at least. Shen Hao had no idea what the Bloodied Sovereign was.
At that moment, the buildings and trees in the school that had turned blood-red seemed to come alive. They melted like candles, writhing as they gradually gathered together and fused.
More and more of the stuff gathered, gradually piling up into a small mountain. It began to change shape, and before long, it had become a blood-red castle.
The enormous blood-red castle gave off an eerie, terrifying aura.
At that moment, his classmates' screams grew even louder.
Clearly, they had encountered something even more terrifying than Xiaobai.
The blood-colored castle before them was that very thing.
Shen Hao recalled Xiaobai and had her stay in the item inventory. There was no need to frighten his classmates anymore.
They gradually gathered around Shen Hao, gazing at the enormous blood-colored castle before them, their eyes full of fear.
Suddenly, the castle gates opened, and everyone's heart skipped a beat.
They knew the most terrifying thing was about to happen.